Killed in Action (KIA) 18 September 1944 in AC #4235297.



AM w/ Oak Leaf Cluster/ PH



78th FG 84th FS: Lt Eugene Wood, Norfolk, Va.,was involved with his Squadron in Operation Market Garden. On the 17th September 1944 he had flown a successful mission with 84thFS where the group had bombed gun positions at either ends of a bridge at Haamstede. At least two direct hits were scored and there were several near misses. Fourteen bombs were dropped on these two targets. Four a/c bombed and strafed 40mm gun emplacements. About five C-47s bellied in fields northeast of Best. One C-47 crashed and burned in the same area and one ditched mid-channel beside an Air/Sea Rescue launch.



“A flight went down to between 2,500 and 2,000 feet and ‘stooged’ about to draw ground fire, then the group went down and dive-bombed and strafed the guns. Fragmentation bombs (200 pounders) proved most effective in knocking out the guns. About ten to fifteen minutes after our attack began, all the German gun positions, with the exception of one battery just south of Nijmegen, stopped firing completely. After that, the group stayed in their area looking unsuccessfully for more ground gun targets. Then they returned to the coast and picked up the C-47’s and gliders and flew along with them until they were cut loose and landed. The group intention was to neutralise any incipient ground fire, but they reported no firing on any gliders or tugs. Several flights with c-47’s carrying paratroopers, and of these C-47’s some ten to twelve were knocked down by gun positions which could not be located by the group pilots.”



The following day Lt Wood was on a combat mission led by Lt Col Jack J Oberhansley, providing fighter-bomber support to the Second Task Force, which arrived at Haamstede at 1536 hours at 3000 ft. Here the mission was to bomb gun and flak positions. Targets of opportunity were strafed, resulting in four box cars damaged, four trucks destroyed, three trucks damaged, one flak position destroyed and eleven damaged. The weather is reported as having very poor visibility with ground haze to 5000 feet.



“At about 1630 hours on September 18, 1944 while flak busting near Straelen, Germany, I saw Lt Wood’s aircraft make a strafing run on a light flak position. As he passed over it at about thirty feet, flames started pouring from the belly of his plane forward of the turbo. He levelled off, but instead of pulling up, continued in a very flat dive until he hit ground about 500 yards away, and skidded about 50 yards more into a row of trees. There was no fire visible, but the wreck was not visible because of the trees and dust.”